


Valentine's Special

by LaBelleetlaloup



Series: A plus tard et rebonjour [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Always Female Stiles Stilinski, F/M, POV Stiles, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 09:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6000340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaBelleetlaloup/pseuds/LaBelleetlaloup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Small bit of fluff set after Not Exactly Hello</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valentine's Special

Derek had done his best to make everything turn out alright. He had stayed at Stiles’ house with her until her father’s release from the hospital and had helped her acclimate to socializing again. Stiles’ father had been grateful to Derek for looking after her, luckily, instead of jumping to conclusions. It had probably helped that Cora, Isaac, Jackson, Erica, Boyd, and Peter had not been too long in following Derek back to Beacon Hills. Although they had all missed Stiles’ birthday again, they spent the entire holiday season together.

Stiles had slowly learned to trust herself and her competence again. Derek and Peter had talked her into going to therapy, as one of the consultants for the Trinity Facility where Peter had been treated had her practice in Beacon Hills. Being able to talk to someone not involved in the situation about everything that had happened from when Peter had bit Scott had been a lot more relieving that Stiles had anticipated. Additionally having a pack with eight members, all but one of whom had managed to have had enough time away and had taken advantage of the counseling at Trinity to find healthy coping mechanisms for their trauma, helped Stiles feel like she was no longer adrift in a storm without a paddle.

Peter and Derek had also managed to discuss the situation with Natalie and got Lydia moved out of Eichen to Trinity. Luckily, despite Vallack’s interference, Lydia had managed to live through him trying to teach her about her powers by developing some sort of psychic link to Meredith. By the middle of January, Lydia had been released from Trinity and was receiving counseling from the same clinic that Stiles went to, although Lydia was seeing Dr Lewis Carter and Stiles saw Dr Georgia Simons.

Stiles’ relationships with Malia, Kira, and Scott remained unchanged in the months following the Hale Pack’s return to their territory. Scott remained out of contact somewhere with his father. Kira was likewise still learning to control herself with her mother, with no real contact with the outside world. Malia had likely gone back to living as a coyote in the forest but no one knew for certain. 

Stiles’ relationship with Lydia had remained largely unchanged, but Lydia had gotten hurt too soon after Stiles’ fight with Scott for her to have even heard of it. Lydia had been just as unavailable in Trinity as she had been in Eichen and after she was released, she was no longer familiar with people, but she was happy to try and remember how to be social with Stiles. By mutual agreement, they hung out at Lydia’s house and watched movies with happy endings as the majority of their time together. It was easiest for both of them.

With everyone else though, Stiles managed to repair the bridges that had been damaged at least by time apart. After Scott’s apparent psychotic break, and Derek pointing out Stiles’ mental health issues, Stiles’ father had been apologetic and eager to make amends for any way his obliviousness to her distress had furthered the problem. They had managed several family therapy sessions together that helped them communicate. Jackson’s true understanding of the trauma of being forced to act against your will bolstered their relationship, erasing any of their disagreements. Erica and Boyd and Isaac and Cora all did the brunt of the emotional labor as they all managed to figure out how to be friends with Stiles. Erica and Stiles bonded over DC comic books that Derek and Peter continuously handed over money for them to buy. Boyd was the one who took Stiles out to get exercise, since talking wasn’t his favorite activity. Isaac and Peter got Stiles into new clothes, still similar to what she had always worn, but ones that had never had anyone’s blood on them. That also helped more than Stiles had expected. Cora taught Stiles some self-defense, smoothing out her instincts into something she had more control over the outcome. Derek was the one who fussed like a mother hen about not over-working herself, sleeping properly, eating an appropriate amount of healthy food every day. Derek was the one that made Dr Simons tut about being wary of codependency.

Stiles managed to get mostly back to herself, though, by the end of January. She took her meds as instructed, her self-esteem and general well-being improved. Stiles knew that she would never be the same as she had been on her sixteenth birthday, before she’d thrown herself headfirst into the supernatural world after Scott, but she felt more at home in her own skin than she had since before the possession. Enough so that neither her father nor her therapist complained too much when Derek asked her out and Stiles said yes.

The stores were already full of Valentine’s Day cards and candy and decorations by that point, and Boyd and Erica were planning a nice dinner out and a movie for that weekend themselves. After being subjected to Boyd and Erica both begging him for ideas for gifts for the other, Derek suggested that he and Stiles not bother with the cards and candy and gifts. Stiles readily agreed to avoiding unnecessary stress. They might have known each other for years but this was a brand new relationship and Stiles was still taking three different medications in addition to her Adderol, one for depression and two for anxiety. Besides, she had two different tests the Friday before Valentine’s. She certainly did not need to stress about gift-giving.

That year, Valentine’s was Sunday. So Stiles finished her tests on Friday, feeling pretty good about her chances of getting an A. The pack had movie night that night. So by Saturday morning, Stiles was starting to feel a little strange that she and Derek had no plans at all. Deciding not to exchange presents was one thing, and perfectly reasonable for any of myriad reasons, but not having any idea of what they would be doing was a little less reasonable. Jackson was doing something with Danny. Cora and Isaac were going out to a club for some Single’s party the club was doing to boost business. Peter was decided to go with them. Erica and Boyd had all their plans and arrangements made for a romantic date night out. So Stiles wanted to do something, have some sort of plan. They would have the house to themselves for the evening, so they might as well stay in, especially since trying to go out to anywhere except maybe the diner would involve waiting forever for a table. But Stiles could cook. Derek nearly always cooked for the pack. Occasionally Peter would shoo him out of the kitchen. Stiles hadn’t made anything but cookies in months. She decided that was exactly the right idea. Derek had tea with Satomi nearly every Sunday afternoon. Stiles would bring over something to make a meal and she would cook it and they could have a nice meal in. Derek would definitely appreciate it and it shouldn’t be stressful or expensive.

Putting together the menu and getting Derek to agree to let her cook was simple. Derek agreed that having a quiet night in with a nice meal sounded like a lovely way to spend the evening and appreciated her offer to cook for once. As for the menu, Stiles had spent enough time with Derek that she knew what he liked to eat as well as anyone else, so deciding on which variety of meat and vegetables was not difficult. Peter offered up the tablecloth and cloth napkins and nice china that he had bought, on insistence that it would at least come in handy on holidays, of which there were several a year. But then Stiles wanted to put some sort of centerpiece on the table. No one would want to have to deal with fresh flowers and trying to get any sort of bouquet the day before Valentine’s sounded like too much stress.

“What about candles?” Lydia suggested. “Candlelit dinner is romantic and candles aren’t expensive or difficult to deal with.”

“That’s a good point. Candles can just go in a drawer once you blow them out,” Stiles agreed. Then she winced. “Except we agreed that we weren’t doing presents and cards because it could be stressful. Given that Kate set his house on fire and killed his family, I imagine that the threat of accidental fire via candles on a tablecloth might violate the low-stress agreement.”

“Oops!” Stiles could hear the wince in Lydia’s tone. “But don’t they make flameless candles? They’ve got batteries and light bulbs, I think, and definitely no open flame.”

“That would work.”

“If you can’t find those, somewhere probably still has a string or two of white Christmas lights. You could hang them up overhead and then those could also go straight into storage once they’d been taken down.”

“That’s a good idea too.”

“Lydia!” Stiles heard Natalie snap.

“Coming!” Lydia called back. “Sorry. I should go see what Mom wants.”

“It’s fine. I’ll talk to you later.”

Lydia hummed agreement. “And tell me Monday how dinner goes tomorrow.”

“Of course.” Stiles hung up and went downstairs, to enlist her father’s assistance in deciding which store would most likely have battery operated candles or Christmas lights. “Daddy? Do you know what store would most likely have flameless candles?”

“Doesn’t that rather defeat the purpose of a candle?” He looked up from a stack of papers in confusion. Stiles sighed pointedly at him.

“Not if your new boyfriend’s family died in a fire,” she explained. “We’re doing dinner tomorrow. Everyone agreed not to do bouquets so I was thinking that candles would look nice, but open flame on a cloth tablecloth…”

“True. That does greatly increase the likelihood of accidental fire. I would think that they would have these flameless candles at some home store or maybe somewhere like WalMart or Target. Those places have everything.” He started to go back to his papers before obviously changing his mind. “Now… sweetheart… just because it’s Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean…”

“No!” Stiles cut her father off. “I already that that conversation with my therapist two days ago. I got the point. Derek and I are just having dinner at the house because I was studying for my tests yesterday so we hadn’t made any plans and I thought we should have a nicer dinner than the diner.”

“I just wanted to make sure that it had been brought up. Derek’s a good guy and I know he wouldn’t intentionally put any sort of pressure on you, but that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t have done it yourself.”

“There is no pressure, just a nice meal with battery candles that I will be cooking over there while Derek’s having tea with Satomi.”

“Okay. Do you want me to come keep you company while you’re cooking?”

“Peter, Cora, and Isaac will be getting ready to go dancing and Erica and Boyd will be getting ready for their date, so I’m sure everyone will be in and out of the kitchen. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, I was just trying to be available. Melissa and I are going to the diner tomorrow night. It’s not a date.”

“If you say so,” Stiles teased. “Melissa is a lovely woman and you’d be lucky to have a date with her.”

“I won’t argue with your assessment of Melissa but she mentioned bringing people with us and called it a singles thing. I asked Roberts and Marie to come with us.”

“Are they still not together yet?”

“Not to anyone’s knowledge at the station,” her father sighed heavily. “So I thought a casual dinner might help them along. Also, if Melissa wanted it to be a date and I misunderstood, it’s a double date.”

“Smart planning,” Stiles kissed his cheek.

“You got it from me.”

“Alright, well I’m going to go get my hands on some good chicken breast and some new spices and these flameless candles.”

“Sounds good, sweetheart. Remember, I’m on duty tonight.”

“I’ll make Derek feed me.”

Stiles ended up picking up flameless candles and string lights at Kirklands because it was in the shopping center catercorner to the grocery store. Then she got fresh vegetables, chicken breast, fresh spices, and sparkling cider. Stiles took it all to the Hale house in preparation for the next day. Erica thought it was all precious. Peter was quiet but clearly pleased by the flameless candles.

“Just normal batteries?” he asked quietly.

“Yes. The batteries and light-bulbs should be replaceable but they weren’t too expensive anyway.”

They all had a quiet night in, watching HGTV and eating pizza. With everyone having plans for Sunday, none of them were too interested in having an exciting Saturday as well. Nevertheless, they enjoyed themselves.

Sunday morning dawned early. Stiles had gone home once it got late the night before and had forgotten to shut her blinds. So the morning sun woke her bright and early. Having time to make pancakes for her and her father was nice though. They hadn’t had pancakes for breakfast easily in over a year.

After breakfast, Stiles took her time getting ready for the day. She took a leisurely shower, using the deep conditioner on her hair and shaving. She didn’t rush picking out an outfit or pulling her hair up. She ended up in a dress she had only worn a couple times before and her hair pulled into a pretty twist. Her father made sandwiches for lunch and they watched that week’s episode of the murder mystery show they watched together. Stiles correctly guessed the twist ten minutes in. Both of them were wrong about the killer until just before the reveal though. Stiles had thought that since the twist was that the new gardener was actually the victim’s daughter whose mother had recently died that the gardener was the killer. Her father had thought it was the wife. Apparently it had been the wife’s new lover who thought murder would be a cleaner split than divorce.

Stiles got to the Hale house as Derek was leaving and he walked over to say hello before he drove off. Stiles hopped out of the Jeep to show off her dress and Derek groaned softly. “You look gorgeous.”

“Thanks!” Stiles grinned at him. “Have fun at Satomi’s.”

“I could just skip it,” Derek suggested.

“No, go, have fun. Let me get the food together without you trying to distract me with kisses.”

“Fine,” Derek brushed a kiss on her neck. Stiles shivered. Derek grinned, even as Stiles brushed past him towards the house.

“You look lovely!” echoed around the living room as she let herself in.

“Thanks!”

Stiles immediately got started on setting up the dining room and kicked off her shoes. The high heels looked good with her dress but she had yet to master the art of wearing heels while doing anything more intensive than walking a few feet or sitting still. Stiles hung up the string lights and got them plugged in so they cast a soft glow. She set the table and set out the flameless candles, though she turned them back off once she tested that they worked. Then Stiles went into the kitchen to get dinner together. As everyone else was trying to get ready, they dropped in for a few moments at least, as she had expected.

Then Derek got back from Satomi’s as everyone else was heading out and the rolls were just warming in the oven, everything else plated and ready to serve. Derek announced his presence by wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her cheek.

“Perfect timing,” Stiles murmured, turning in his arms. “The rolls will be ready in a few seconds.” Derek pressed a kiss to her lips.

“Smells amazing.”

“I’m glad you agree.” The timer went off. “That’s the rolls.” Derek reached around her and pulled them out himself. Stiles let Derek take care of the food while she slipped back into her heels and turned on the candles in the dining room.

“This is beautiful,” Derek said as he walked in with the food.

“I thought we should do something nice.”

“This certainly is nice.”

“How was Satomi?”

“She was fine. Sent her regards to my mate today.” Derek sounded a little amused.

“That was nice of her.” Stiles froze, fork in the air, when Derek did not immediately reply. “Well… she was being pleasant, right?”

“A mate is basically like a spouse, so it’s a little premature…”

“Oh,” Stiles nodded. “That’s true. I’m sure she meant well by it.”

“I thought it would amuse you. I thought it was funny.”

“Well, if she was talking about Peter that might have been funny,” Stiles teased. Derek pouted at her. “Oh, don’t pout just because I didn’t have the right context to laugh.”

“If I keep pouting will you kiss it better?” Derek asked.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?” Derek leaned over and kissed her. Stiles wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and Derek groaned softly, licking into her mouth. After a moment they both pulled back.

“I didn’t make you dinner to let it get cold,” she chided. Derek chuckled but started eating again.

“Peter really appreciated the lack of fire hazard,” he commented.

“I thought it looked like he did,” Stiles agreed. “We agreed on low-stress after all, so I thought this was the smarter option.”

“Definitely a smarter option.”

“Apparently these string lights are a thing in home décor. There were like seven different varieties.”

“Interesting. I wouldn’t have expected that. But they are pretty, aren’t they?”

“They are. Lydia suggested them if I couldn’t find any candles.”

“She is good at decorations.”

“I keep telling her that she should have a business as an event planner for a hobby. That way she would make the money back that she was spending. Laboratory physics doesn’t pay as well as it could.”

“True,” Derek agreed. “She’d enjoy planning parties for people. It would be a great hobby, but if it wasn’t through an official business, it would easily become a money suck.”

“So Lydia made me promise to tell her how dinner went. I didn’t under-salt the potatoes, did I?”

“No, they taste great. Everything’s wonderful, promise. Besides, I get the feeling that Lydia wasn’t too curious about the food.”

“That’s entirely plausible but I’m just going to tell her that the lighting worked out and the food was good.”

“That’s your prerogative. I don’t care if you tell your best friend about our date, though.”

“Whether or not we kissed, I think, is personal.”

“That’s fine with me.” Derek smiled openly at her.

They finished up their meal, put the dishes in the sink to soak, and settled in the living room in front of the TV.

“What do you want to watch?” Derek asked, picking up the remote. Stiles smiled at him. They settled on Pride and Prejudice, both agreeing it was appropriate for the holiday as well as a good movie. Afterwards, they stayed curled on the couch together, kissing and talking, until Erica, Boyd, Cora, Isaac, and Peter got home and Stiles realized how late it was and that she had school the next day. Stiles found her shoes under the couch and Derek followed her out to the Jeep.

"Goodnight," Stiles murmured.

"Goodnight, sweetheart," Derek replied. They shared one last kiss before Stiles got in the Jeep and drove away. Derek watched the car until it disappeared around the bend and then went back inside to help his uncle herd the teenagers into bed. Stiles had been correct that it was getting late for a school night.


End file.
